105. Telegram From the Embassy in Romania to the Department of State1
SUBJECT
- President Ceausescu’s Desire To Visit the United States in 1983.
- 1.
- Confidential—Entire text.
- 2.
- Summary: Foreign Minister Andrei asked on January 31 for an invitation for President Ceausescu to visit the U.S. in 1983. Andrei wants to visit Washington in late March or early April. Andrei wants Deputy Foreign Minister Dolgu to go to Washington ASAP for talks. End summary.
- 3.
- On January 31, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stefan Andrei called Ambassador Funderburk to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to suggest that President Reagan invite President Ceausescu to visit the United States in 1983 to discuss bilateral relations and international problems.2 Andrei said that President Ceausescu believes that a meeting with President Reagan would now have an important impact on U.S.-Romanian relations. President Ceausescu realizes Andrei said that the President has a very busy schedule and if he cannot visit Romania this year, then President Ceausescu is willing to visit the United States upon receiving an invitation from President Reagan.
- 4.
- Stefan Andrei said that regarding his planned visit to the U.S. he had spoken with President Ceausescu on Saturday, 29 January. Ceausescu told Andrei to plan on high level meetings with U.S. Government officials to review and discuss important international issues such as the Middle East crisis, European security, disarmament, the new economic order, and special matters related to the desires of several states that wish to improve their relations with the U.S. Andrei said that President Ceausescu would serve as a go-between for these countries who desire better relations with the U.S. He did not specify which countries these were.
- 5.
- Andrei said that when he visits the U.S. he would also like to have meetings with Eagleburger to discuss a wide range of international issues including the Madrid Conference, European security and some special subjects that he recently discussed with Col. Khadaffi. Andrei said that he would like to visit the U.S. after attending the Non-Aligned conference meeting in New Delhi in March 1983. He would prefer to visit the U.S. the last week in March or the first week of April 1983. [Page 298] One of the major goals of his visit would be to prepare for a visit of President Ceausescu who would continue these discussions of international issues with President Reagan.
- 6.
- Deputy Foreign Minister Gheorghe Dolgu is prepared to visit the U.S. immediately for talks with U.S. officials and with Under Secretary Eagleburger. During Eagleburger’s recent visit to Romania, President Ceausescu emphasized to him the importance of improving the exchange of information between the two governments to strengthen bilateral ties and cooperation. Therefore, Andrei said, “we are taking this initiative”.
- 7.
- Andrei asked the Ambassador to convey to Secretary of State Shultz Andrei’s friendship and best wishes for his success in Shultz’s trip to the far East.3 Andrei told the Ambassador that he was very satisfied with his conversations with National Security Advisor Clark,4 and he very much appreciated the positive way that Clark approached bilateral problems. Andrei thanked the Ambassador for his contribution to these bilateral discussions.
Comment: The top Romanian leaders appear to be convinced that meetings with high ranking U.S. officials can help solve Romanian problems, as well as burnish Romanian leadership images, and are thus anxious to engage in such discussions ad nauseum: the issues, for example, that Andrei listed as an agenda for his visit are the same issues he had dealt with during several recent meetings with high U.S. officials. He did not offer any indication that he would be instructed to raise anything new. He will undoubtedly attempt to escalate his proposed visit to a meeting with the President or Vice President, NSC Director Clark and secretaries of other departments. The visit of Dolgu is relatively low level and we see no particular problems with signals that might be conveyed with his meetings. He is primarily an economist and could be programmed as such. We would have very serious concerns about considering a Ceausescu state visit and will address them and other considerations about the proposed Andrei visit in septel.5